Three charged in cocaine drug bust

Authorities: Recovery valued near half a million dollars, one of biggest in region

Posted: Saturday, February 12, 2000

By Stephen GurrStaff Writer

Wednesday's seizure of five kilos of cocaine at an Oglethorpe County residence was the one of the largest-ever drug busts in the Athens area, authorities said Friday.

On Friday Fred L. Sims, 26, of Colbert, his mother, Sylvia Latimore, 45, of Crawford, and Rickey Cox, 40, of Athens made an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Macon on federal charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine. All three were released on bond, which was set at $25,000 for Sims, $20,000 for Cox and $15,000 for Latimore, said Pam Lightsey, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office in the Middle District of Georgia.

The trio was arrested Wednesday at Latimore's Crawford residence following an investigation by Athens-Clarke police, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Piedmont Multi-Agency Narcotics Squad and the Madison and Oglethorpe County sheriff's departments.

Mike Eason, special agent in charge of the GBI's regional drug office in Gainesville, said the amount of drugs recovered by authorities made the bust one of the biggest in the region.

''In the Athens area, they have made some pretty good seizures in the past, but this is probably the largest they've had in some time,'' Eason said.

Sgt. Mike Hunsinger, supervisor of the Athens-Clarke drug and vice unit, said he could not recall a bigger cocaine bust in his nine years in the department. In 1992 Athens-Clarke police seized four kilos of cocaine during a drug investigation. A kilogram is equal to about 2.2 pounds.

Hunsinger said that while the cocaine was seized in powder form, ''I would imagine it would eventually hit the streets as crack.''

Based on Hunsinger's estimate that five rocks of crack cocaine could be produced from one gram of powder, Wednesday's seizure could make as many as 25,000 individual ''rocks'' of crack cocaine, selling on the streets for $5 to $20 each. The street value of the drugs seized could be as high as half a million dollars, Hunsinger said.

The seizure was ''definitely a good thing to happen for the community,'' Hunsinger said. ''I would hope that it would affect the amount of cocaine you see on the street.''

Authorities say Sims was the ringleader of a drug operation they believed reached into several surrounding counties, and used his mother's residence to store the drugs. Sims owned a record store and pool room in Oglethorpe County which he may have used as fronts to move the cocaine, authorities said.

Eason said Sims and Cox fought with an officer when they were arrested about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, and have been charged with felony obstruction. He would not comment on whether attempts were made by the suspects to hide or destroy the contraband when officers arrived.

Authorities also carried out a search warrant at Sims' Colbert residence, where they seized unspecified evidence, but no significant amount of drugs, Eason said. Madison County Sheriff Clayton Lowe said Thursday that automobiles, a motorcycle and a large amount of cash were confiscated at the residence.

''Hopefully, this prosecution will help stem the flow of cocaine,'' Hunsinger said.